Sinking
by G. Sun
Summary: Risa continues to follow the distrustful intruder into The End of the World and catches a glimpse of the people she failed to save. Her failure will inevitably lead her down to suffocating Darkness. How long will our Keyblade wielder last in the Darkness? Meanwhile Seth faces his demons with the help of his Master but why? Read after AFLAMED.
1. Chapter 1

**Risa's inside the Darkness!**

The Angel Island intruder has to be the most silent person I have ever met-I am not like Mizuki who gives nicknames sporadically-he or she has not said a word. All this person does is point, nod, and shake their head. They have not even bothered to give me a name to call them. I do not like people like that. It is ironic but I prefer people like Clancy and Mizuki, people who are happy to talk to others, they make me feel like an average person.

I will miss her company and Erick's. Especially Erick for providing an outlet for me to train and explore other worlds and giving me the chance to look for Clancy. But now that will all be over. Everything will be the way it once was before my home was taken by the forces of Darkness. Actually it is going to be much different, Father died the day all of that happened, that makes me the chief of the village. I will change my title when I get back and change so many things about that sullen, depressing place. Listen to yourself, you are not even home yet and you are already thinking of the things you are going to do.

The Angel Island intruder and I make it to the immense violet spiral at the end. When we step inside, the "sky" becomes dark as the night. The ground beneath me is squishy and damp, making little splashes where we step. When I glance behind, the spiral portal is gone without a trace and I follow the Angel Island intruder. They point to above and an olive spiral hole in the starless darkness opens up slowly. Abruptly the intruder jumps onto a high, squishy platform over us and leaps across to the next side, following a zig-zag pattern. When I bend down and hop, I float in the air as if I am in space, gravity is obviously not a factor in this world. If this world was not so desolate and dark, I would enjoy myself here.

When I land on the first squishy platform perfectly, I almost trip backwards from what I see. Thousands of yellow eyes on me, black bodies squishing together in a tight space trying to shuffle towards me. When I regain my balance, I sigh calmly, understanding that these creatures are trapped behind an inconspicuous wall and cannot reach me. It takes me awhile to turn my back to them but I do in order to jump across to the higher platform. More and more Heartless ogle me ravenously and some manage to get their claws out to reach for me but they only scratch the surface of the invisible wall. They cannot reach me, calm down. Soon I will never have to see these hideous things again. The next leap across brings me to a barrier that separates normal people and me. "What?"

I put my hand on the invisible barrier, scrutinizing the real looking people in the wall. Why would there be real people here? First looking at the faces, they are scared children, adults, elders, and even babies that are sobbing and crying out but make no sound. Is that the old woman from when Don and I went to find the Chaos Emerald? Oh, I recognize that man in there, he was the weapon crafter of the my village. His name was Harold and he is the one who made my first two-handed sword-and that woman, Willow, I once took care of her kids while she was visiting another village. Yre, that girl who would always be afraid to approach me because she said I looked scary with my hood hiding my face. As I take a small step back, more trapped faces appear and more of them I recognize.

"Why is everyone trapped here?" I wonder to myself as the Keyblade summons itself in my hand. This sword has a mind of its own but I get the feeling it is following my unspoken will. I see a particular face in the crowd of villagers-Father's face. I have never seen him look so terrified before, he looks thirty years older. His dark hazel eyes are dilated and his skin has lost its color. I raise my sword hand to strike the barrier and I slam the Keyblade's tip on it. The barrier flashes but every one of the villagers is still trapped inside. I bring the Keyblade on it a second time and something stops me the third time. The Angel Island intruder has their hand on the blade, stopping me from continuing. "Why are they all trapped here?"

The intruder takes their hand off the blade and it disappears. They simply look up at the protruding hole in the dark abyss above. As I turn away from the barrier, I look back at the familiar, scared faces, wishing that once I make it home, I can bring them back to safety. Even my father who has done nothing but hurt me my entire life deserves a chance at life. I have to learn to be chief from somebody and who can I rule over when everyone's trapped here?

* * *

I'm starting to get used to hell, it's better than the real world. In the real world I used to live in people expected me to do things, follow through, be loyal, take care of them, and love them. Mia wanted me to go back home with her, Master wanted me to be like him, a king of Darkness, my parents wanted me to find a nice girl, get an education, have kids and then retire in a lavish retirement on one of the islands. Nobody expects anything from me here. Nobody cares about the lives I've ruined, the people I left behind to struggle on their own. I'm reminded of all the pain I caused people- Xevia's cries echoed around me for a short while, Mia keeps begging me for the answer to the question I can't ever answer, "Are we still friends?" That kid from that village, the one I chose, he's now just an incomplete me. "All I wanted was the power she had," he repeats over and over again. That kid reminds me so much of how I used to be, that's why I picked him. It's Mia turn to torment me again. "Seth why did you leave me for Darkness?"

"I liked the power," I reply, the same reply as always. She shakes her head disappointedly, still in disbelief about my answer. I don't know why I never noticed it before but her bangs are gross. A long time ago, she told me she used to have long hair but it got caught off by some bullies. Now her dark blue hair doesn't even reach her neck and she refuses to cut her ugly bangs that cover her forehead.

"Are we still friends?" she asks the same question. Without a thought, I answer her robotically.

"I don't know."

"Seth, are we still friends?" Friends don't threaten to kill each other. They don't let themselves get taken by the Darkness for power. Friends don't abandon each other and let their friends suffer in the grueling world. But a friend would try to save their friend. A friend would never lose faith and a true friend would hope that a glimmer of light still existed in the friend who sank into the Darkness. No matter what, a friend would always be there for their friend. Mia was there for me when I hated Moonlight Town and I was there for Mia when nobody would even smile at her. "Are we still friends?"

"I'm not your friend Mia," I say fiercely. _"I never will be."_ Suddenly my inner voice howls fiercely as if another me lived inside me. "Nooo!"

"It's time to wake up Pupil." Master's voice breaks all the other tormented voices and brings me back to my bedroom. I gasp for air, as if I was put underwater for more than two hours. My body throbs in pain and I have a hard time seeing my bedroom. "You're alive again. Have you had a chance to face your demons?" I nod slowly, unable to make a single sound. "Are you ready to see your former friend Seth?"

* * *

"How much farther is it?" The Angel Island intruder guides me along a dark grey path in the middle of a black void. More Heartless eyes surround the two of us for every step we take. The intruder points below us now, a sliver of light burns bright beneath us. "What is down there? My home?"

The intruder nods wordlessly. My world has been reduced to its own small light, I wonder how much longer I have to wait to get there. We walk down the slope, making light blue splashes while the Heartless seem to multiply alongside us. _Darkness is coming for you, _the phrase repeats itself in my head the farther I go down. _Do not stray, do not stray._ "Are you sure you are bringing me home?"

The intruder nods and a rush of yellow eyes suddenly cover their body. I glance to my left and right, and see the towers of Heartless crash and charge at us. The Keyblade reappears in my hand and I slash widely across the barrage of Heartless.

J.G.P.


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you lie to me?" I shout exasperatedly as I manage to keep the swarms off my body. But when look to where the Angel Island intruder is, I can only see their hand as the Heartless drowns them. No, I cannot lose the only thing that is going to bring me back home. Charging through the swarm while brandishing the broken blade, I dive in after where the Angel Island intruder sunk. The small Heartless' faces dig into mine the farther I go. Diving into the pits of Darkness after someone who cannot utter a single word-that is something new for me. The Heartless' claws scratch my face and take my hood off, but fortunately there is nobody to see me hoodless and I close my eyes. "Take my sword."

Wherever the intruder is, I hope they can hear me. I swim down more, kicking more Heartless as they start to get bigger and harder to swim through. There is not enough space to properly hit anything but at least the Angel Island intruder can reach for my sword. I extend my arm out as far as I can, unsure of how I might be able to tell if there is any weight on it since the Angel Island intruder does not speak. That is when the Heartless crawl all over my arm like spiders. Their bodies begin to melt down like hot lava and drape my arm in thick black liquid. Grunting, I try shaking my arm free of the black liquid, dropping the Keyblade farther in the pit of Heartless. The phrase in the fire reiterates ubiquitously, _Darkness is coming for you, Darkness is coming for you, Darkness is coming for you._

The willpower to keep on the breathing is slipping the more Heartless suppress me. _Darkness is coming for you_. All I wanted was to go home back to the Village of Willow. I would lose the friends I made in Metropolis but I would go back to my old life again. Even the man Don I can say I will miss but hope that I never see him again so he will not use my curse against me. Clancy is in the light waiting for me to save him, Father, Miriam, and the rest of my villagers-they all need me to save them. Mother would be so proud of me when I save everyone. They all need me more than I need them. I open my eyes and hold my breath as I use a partially solid Heartless to kick off and dive deeper. Ah, that glint in the darkness, it is the Angel Island intruder. I reach for them as more Heartless cover my arm and liquefy on it; I switch arms and finally snatch the mask. A green flame sprouts from my hand and immediately augments into a powerful flame. I have to let go because my hand is slightly singed but the liquid Heartless are still glued to my sleeves and legs; I drop back to the firm, damp ground on my back, no longer crushed by the Heartless. I sit up, attempting to shake of the purple liquid off my clothes while examining my singed left hand.

"Oh!" the light that was beneath us is a couple of feet away, smaller than I initially thought. "It was not a lie." _Darkness is coming for you. _I stand on feet, wondering why that statement is still relevant. No it is not, I defeated the Darkness and saved myself and my villagers. There is no more Darkness, only Light awaits me.

As I start to waddle towards the light, something else pulls me back away from the Angel Island intruder and from the light. I saved them, it is only fair they save me right? Before being submerged in the swarm of Heartless, the Keyblade reappears in my hand and I manage to slash away the Heartless. More claws lift me up from the ground and away from the white light-for a second I can see my house in there and the neighbors waving at each other. When I look toward the Angel Island intruder, they wave their hand in front of them and a fiery lime message floats: _If life is what you want,_ _fight for the Light that is burns brighter than the flame._

Why do I always have to fight? I have been fighting since I can first walk and hold a bucket with one hand. The early days are the simplest to remember. Father came home with something shiny and red in his hands, he had just come from seeing Harold about making a two-handed sword. As I questioned what is was and why he had something like that, he dropped it in my tiny hands. At first I screamed because the blade was so hot, he did not even let it cool down before giving it to me. _"Wow_," I whispered when I got used to the heat and held the hilt.

"_It's your new sword. Try it out."_

"_It-heavy."_

"_That's an order."_

There was Father being a brute once again. Why did I want to save him again? After everything he has done? Why does Mother not bring me out of the Darkness and save me if she truly loved me? I get the idea that she is omniscient so why does she not help me get to my own world? Like everyone else dear to me, I have let her down, along with Father, Clancy, and my villagers. To prove my worth I always I had to fight. All my life I have fought to be recognized, to be feared by enemies, to gain respect from other villagers, keep up Father's good name. It all means nothing if I cannot even reach the light that is my world. "_I hate you!" _Sia's voice echoes through the suffocating abyss as I swipe away the Heartless with the blue blade. I hate me too Sia.

"_Demon Princess," _says Father smugly. I thought he died, why am I hearing him again?

"I never anticipated seeing you here," another male's voice different from the hateful screams reverberates. "In my domain."

"Whose domain?" I mumble as I sink into the claws of more Heartless. The light above me is being eaten by the monsters with the yellow eyes and antennas until the Heartless above completely cover the hole that gives me a view of the bright light and submerge me in darkness. "It does not matter, I am going to get out as I did before."

"You didn't, you never left the Darkness. But your friend did. I watched him remain trapped here by another boy with a heart full of Darkness," he says matter-of-factly. "He stayed here, in this realm of Darkness for months and now his heart is coated in Darkness. He left before you came."

"Do you mean-Clancy?" I suddenly realize the identity of the man, the man I briefly I clashed with when I had to wake Mizuki up from her nightmare. "Why are you here?" I mutter, grimacing when one of the claws tear through my huge sleeve and my arm. The man laughs as if I cracked a joke.

"A piece of me has always been in your mind ever since that encounter. I've forced you to relive your most painful memories in the worst of times when you wanted to keep them in the back of your mind."

"Who are you?"

"I am Dori, the representation of dark, painful memories who resides in this Dark realm. Now let us establish that as long as you're trapped and unable to climb out of this pit of Heartless, you are going to hear and revisit more painful memories and past emotions."

"You were also the voice in my head when I became angry and lost control of myself."

"I can make that happen very easily. Back then you were in a state of confusion and fear, which allowed me to enrage your Darkness and make you a being of hatred. _You are no different at this moment_."

"What do you want from me?"

"Your Keyblade. I can take you out of this place and back to the world you are about to lose. All you have to do is hand over the broken blade in your hand."

"Never." I grip the hilt of the blade, pulling my hood over my face again, knowing that my gradual descent will just cause the hood to come down again. "If I am to die here, I will die trying to save my home."

J.G.P.

**Shorter than the others but still packed with some meaty stuff.**


End file.
